Apollo

The heist at Arundel Castle means a heartbreaking loss of heritage

Arundel Castle, West Sussex.

Stolen objects include the rosary that Mary, Queen of Scots took to her execution

In the studio with… Samson Kambalu

Samson Kambalu at Magdalen College, Oxford.

At Modern Art Oxford, the artist has set the stage for a ceremony initiating visitors into a utopian world of racial justice

A masterpiece of Roman design, rediscovered in Nicaragua

Long thought lost by scholars, a spectacular silver gilt monstrance by Luigi Valadier has now been tracked down to a Central American basilica

Salvage value: the rescue missions of Michael Rakowitz

The Iraqi-American artist talks to Apollo about making an anti-war memorial in Margate – and about ‘problem-solving and trouble-making’ with his art

Mock turtle soup in the museum

The Mock-Turtle (right) in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ (1865), illustrated by John Tenniel.

Heston Blumenthal’s homage to the famous dish is served up in the V&A’s Alice in Wonderland show

The week in art news – in Oxford, Rhodes won’t fall after all

The statue of Cecil Rhodes outside Oriel College in Oxford, photographed in June 2020.

Oriel College, Oxford has decided not to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes – the imperialist businessman, politician and philanthropist…

The Galloway Hoard: Viking-age Treasure

An Anglo-Saxon disc brooch.

The greatest medieval treasure-trove ever found in Scotland goes on display for the first time

Epic Iran

A spectacular survey at the V&A takes us through five thousand years of Iranian civilisation

The Doge’s Room

The Doge’s Room. Photo: Matteo De Fina

One of the most spectacular rooms in the Palazzo Grimani sees the return of its classical statuary

Luigi Pericle: Ad Astra

Luigi Pericle

The reclusive Swiss painter with esoteric interests is now the subject of a major survey in Lugano

Art Basel Hong Kong remains defiant in the face of upheaval

untitled 2020 (Rug 3, 1976) (detail; 2020), Rirkrit Tiravanija.

The fair’s organisers are optimistic that Hong Kong can remain an international art hub despite political turmoil in the city

After playing Turner and Lowry, now Timothy Spall has taken up painting for real

Taking after Turner: Timothy Spall.

Having picked up the paintbrush for film roles, the actor found that he couldn’t stop painting – and he now has a solo show of his own

Would medieval Christians have blushed at a giant chalk erection?

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A saintly sight? The Cerne Abbas giant in Dorset.

Even if the Cerne Abbas giant is Anglo-Saxon, that doesn’t make it pagan – after all, Christians were no prudes in those days

Images of strength – Jennifer Higgie’s ‘The Mirror and the Palette’, reviewed

This wide-ranging book explores how women artists used self-portraiture to establish themselves in a man’s world

In her life and art, Nina Hamnett had some serious fun

The Landlady (1918), Nina Hamnett. Private collection.

The first survey show dedicated to the ‘Queen of Bohemia’ presents a flamboyant figure who was single-minded about her art

An audience with the Qianlong Emperor, via the small screen

Still from Story of Yanxi Palace (2018), with the empress wearing a replica of a fengguan (phoenix crown) now in the Palace Museum, Beijing.

The meticulous attention to Chinese decorative arts is as great a draw as the court intrigue in ‘Story of Yanxi Palace’

In the studio with… Bedwyr Williams

Bedwyr Williams with the Science Museum Group Collection at the National Collections Centre in Wiltshire. The artist is currently working with local audiences to create a film and accompanying book as a response to the collection, which will go in view at the collection centre when it opens to the public in 2024.

The Welsh artist’s studio looks out on to the mountains of Snowdonia – idyllic were it not for the children screaming in the playground next door, he says

Museums are finally reopening – and these are the shows we don’t want to miss

Holding court: the refurbished Raphael Court at the V&A in 2021.

Apollo’s editors pick out the museum shows that they’re most looking forward to visiting in coming weeks

The week in art news – UK government approves Whitechapel Bell Foundry becoming a boutique hotel

Interior of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, London, photographed in 2014.

Plus: NGA Washington appoints E. Carmen Ramos chief curator and more stories

Extinction rebellion – the Jurassic parks of London and beyond

Two of the dinosaur sculptures in Crystal Palace Park.

A band of dynamic dinosaurs is arriving in the UK this summer – but will they be a match for the Victorian sculptures at Crystal Palace Park?

Girault de Prangey

Near Alexandria: The Desert (detail; 1842), Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey.

The first photographer to capture many places in the eastern Mediterranean goes on display at the reopened Musée d’Orsay

Victor Hugo, Liberty at the Panthéon

The Wake beneath the Arc de Triomphe, 31 May 1885 (1903), Alfred Roll.

A display at the Panthéon explores the political symbolism of the writer’s internment there in 1885

Eileen Agar: Angel of Anarchy

Agar_Dance of Peace (detail; 1945), Eileen Agar.

A major survey for the trailblazing British Surrealist spanning her seven-decade career, at the Whitechapel Gallery

Thomas Becket: Murder and the Making of a Saint

Alabaster panel from an altarpiece showing Becket’s consecration as archbishop (detail; first half of 15th century), England.

This display at the British Museum will explore the turbulent life – and grisly death – of the 12th-century priest